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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/29885148">And when you feel your pulse, knock you over like an animal</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/angelofcreativity/pseuds/angelofcreativity'>angelofcreativity</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Keep your head up, don't take your eyes off the road [4]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Julie and The Phantoms (TV 2020)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Also I want to point out, Flynn has a lock necklace, Gen, Here we have Willie making questionable decisions, Honestly this is kinda silly, I've connected the dots, and Willie has a key, but I was asked</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-03-06</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-03-06</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-15 16:40:48</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,729</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/29885148</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/angelofcreativity/pseuds/angelofcreativity</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>I was asked, and I deliver: What did Willie mean when he said they couldn't prove the monkey had anything to do with him?</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Flynn &amp; Willie (Julie and The Phantoms), Julie Molina &amp; Willie, Willie &amp; Carrie Wilson</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Keep your head up, don't take your eyes off the road [4]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/2197299</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>14</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>32</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>And when you feel your pulse, knock you over like an animal</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><ul class="associations">
      <li>For <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/Odyssey81418/gifts">Odyssey81418</a>.</li>



    </ul><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Silly and short, but Odyssey81418 asked and I am a sucker for validation. Chapter title from Simple as 123 from Jukebox the Ghost, series title from The Great Unknown by Jukebox the Ghost. </p><p>This fic takes place before the start of Simple as 1, 2, 3</p><p>As far as I know, no triggers, but please if I miss something let me know so I can fix it.</p><p>Fake internet points for my references as always.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Ray pinched his nose as he stared at the ceiling. “Okay,” he said, after a moments silence. “Explain it to me again.”</p><p>Seated on the sofa in front of him, Flynn and Carrie nudged Julie from either side. She winced – why did they have to throw her under the bus like that?</p><p>“Willie called.”</p><p>“From the police station.”</p><p>“Yes.”</p><p>“Because he got arrested.”</p><p>Flynn unwisely chose that time to speak. “Well, technically –,”</p><p>“Flynn,” Ray ground out. “Now is not the time you want to be talking.”</p><p>Flynn nodded. “Valid.”</p><p>Ray turned back to his daughter. “So instead of telling me this, you sent your mother to go get him?”</p><p>“In his defence –,” Carrie began, before she too was quelled by the crushing feeling of Ray’s Disappointment, trademark pending.</p><p>“Julie, please explain.”</p><p>Julie took a deep breath. “Okay, so how it happened was…”</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>**********************************************************************************</p>
</div><p>
  <i>12 hours earlier – 7.15 am</i>
</p><p>“There's no single guys left in Manhattan,” Willie said in a nasally voice as the girls got to the lobby of the dorms. They grinned as he gave them their coffee orders – green tea for Carrie – and the four of them set off towards the school.</p><p>“I take it the date was another bust,” Flynn stated, her backpack slipping off one shoulder. Willie nodded, feigning disappointment. </p><p>“British accents, surprisingly not all they’re cracked up to be.”</p><p>“Sorry, Willie,” Julie said, bumping his shoulder with hers. “Tell me about it later?”</p><p>He nodded, smiling down at his ‘adopted sister’. Willie’s foster dad wasn’t around much, and Rosa Molina – Rose, as she kept insisting he call her – had yet to meet a friend of Julie’s that she wouldn’t adopt on sight. </p><p>“In dance?”</p><p>Julie nodded as the girls gave him quick hugs and everyone peeled off to go to their classes. Willie steeled himself for the day.</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>**********************************************************************************</p>
</div><p>“Mija, I fail to see what this has to do with anything?”</p><p>“Papi, I’m getting there, I promise.”</p><p>“Don’t try to soft soap me with Papi. Just tell me what happened.”</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>**********************************************************************************</p>
</div><p>
  <i>9 hours ago – 10.15am</i>
</p><p>His first two classes passed uneventfully – Calculus was doable, and English was analyzing Great Expectations. He’d done the book in class in his previous foster placement, so he could pretty reliably zone out. </p><p>But when he got to dance, he almost walked straight into the wall. Julie, warming up with Flynn and Carrie in the corner, shot him a concerned look.</p><p>How does one explain an insta crush on a visiting instructor?</p><p>Willie recognized him – one of the alumni, two years older than him, who was studying at Julie’s dream university. He was at the barre stretching out, and a good inch of dark skin was showing at his stomach. Willie’s mouth was dry. </p><p>He stumbled over to the girls, stretching alongside them. All their chatter went straight over his head as he kept his eyes on Pierre, their guest, until he registered giggles.</p><p>“What?” he demanded of the girls at his side. </p><p>Carrie smirked at him. “I asked what you want to get for lunch after this, and you told me I look nice.”</p><p>“Well you do!”</p><p>“Not the point.” She pointed at him as they got to their feet. “You have an insta crush, don’t you?”</p><p>Willie felt his face flush. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”</p><p>Flynn snorted. “Sure, Jan.”</p><p>Thankfully, Pierre started their lesson then, with soft swing music. Willie paid rapt attention as Pierre explained the movements, showing them a few, and explained the improv requirements. They did it at half time, no music, with Willie pairing with Julie and Flynn with Carrie, although that came with a few muffled curses as Flynn accidentally kicked her.</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>**********************************************************************************</p>
</div><p>“Mija, what does this have to do with why your mama is getting Willie from the police station?”</p><p>“It’s contextual!”</p><p>“I wanna get arrested, this sounds like fun!”</p><p>“Carlos, NO.”</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>**********************************************************************************</p>
</div><p>
  <i>8 hours ago – 11.15 am</i>
</p><p>In the break between half time and full time, Willie moved to the side to get a drink of water. It was absolutely not designed to get him close enough to talk to Pierre, no matter what Flynn tried to say. </p><p>“William, right?” Pierre asked as Willie took a sip of water. One short incredibly embarrassing choking fit later, Willie nodded. </p><p>“I, um, go by Willie, but yeah.”</p><p>Pierre nodded, leaning against the mirror. “I remember you from last year.”</p><p>Oh, that’s great. Willie would just go into the corner and melt into a puddle real quick.</p><p>“You were in the environmental club, right?”</p><p>Willie nodded. “And you were in debate. You made a great case for the zoo placement.” There, that was a good statement. </p><p>Pierre’s face soured. “Not that they listened to me. There’s a rare monkey coming into the zoo soon – the transport truck is meant to be there this afternoon. The poor thing shouldn’t be in captivity, but heaven forbid humans not think they are entitled to literally everything, right?”</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>**********************************************************************************</p>
</div><p>Ray groaned, sitting in one of the armchairs. “Tell me this isn’t going where I think it is.”</p><p>Julie bit her lip. “Do you want to hear the rest of this or not?”</p><p>A deep sigh. “Yeah, okay.”</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>**********************************************************************************</p>
</div><p>
  <i>4 hours ago – 3.15pm</i>
</p><p>Willie begged off of going with the girls to the dorms to get their things – Flynn’s moms were just going to carry her stuff anyways, Carrie went to her dad’s city apartment for the weekend provided her mom wasn’t visiting, and both of them would end up back at the Molina’s apartment soon enough. </p><p>Instead, he pulled up the maps app on his phone and did some careful calculations. The truck would be passing the school on its way to the zoo in five minutes and he needed to be ready. He stashed his backpack, pulled on his helmet, and got his board ready.</p><p>Three… two… one…</p><p>
  <i>There.</i>
</p><p>He skated into the traffic, nimbly dodging doors and people and the litany of rude gestures and yelling that followed him as he got to the truck. He had to do careful manoeuvring to get the right angle, but he managed to grab the bumper and hitch his ride.</p><p>The thrill of this never ended, and though Willie knew that was probably an indication that he should be in therapy for routinely doing something so dangerous, he didn’t exactly care. This wasn’t the moment for deep and serious. This was the moment to do something stupid to impress his crush.</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>**********************************************************************************</p>
</div><p>“Mija, can we please keep the internal commentary to a minimum?”</p><p>“Sorry, Papi.”</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>**********************************************************************************</p>
</div><p>
  <i>3 hours and 55 minutes ago – 3.20pm</i>
</p><p>Willie waited until the driver pulled up to a traffic light before he made his move. Carefully, he stepped off his board, grabbed it, and threw himself through the tiny gap he’d wedged open. Inside, it looked nicer than he thought it would – cool, so the monkey didn’t overheat, and it seemed to have food and water at the very least. Willie bit his lip, suddenly not sure.</p><p>No, he would do this. </p><p>He made his way to where the monkey was lying, eating something and looking unimpressed by his proximity. Willie frowned at the area around him – he didn’t have anything to pry the lock open with. </p><p>There, on the wall. The keys.</p><p>He opened the cage with a magnanimous gesture. “There you go, man. You’re free.” </p><p>The monkey gave him an unimpressed look and rolled over. Willie frowned and shoved the lock and key into the pocket of his cargo pants, trying to get the monkey to stand without having to actually touch it. “Man, go on. You can go free now.”</p><p>The monkey scratched at its… um… behind. Willie frowned, before reading the informational placket on the cage.</p><p>
  <i>THIS SPECIMEN RAISED IN CAPTIVITY AS PART OF A BREEDING PROGRAM</i>
</p><p>Oh.</p><p>Oops.</p><p>Willie smiled at him in embarrassment. “Sorry, man. Lemme just put this back.”</p><p>He slid the cage closed again, pulling the lock out of his pocket, but before he could snap it on, he heard a masculine voice yell from the front of the truck.</p><p>“Hey! What the heck are you doing back there?!”</p><p>It seemed Willie had overlooked the fairly important fact that the truck had a window to the storage area. Willie caught sight of two close set eyes and an impressive mustache, before his instincts kicked in. </p><p>He bolted.</p><p>Admittedly, probably not his best move.</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>**********************************************************************************</p>
</div><p>“Probably?!” Ray said in a choked voice, his face an impressive red. Julie shot concerned glances at her friends as she finished talking.</p><p>“He got picked up three streets away, but the monkey is okay. And he called but you were in the shower so I asked him what happened, and when he said he was at the 99th precinct, I told Mom and she went to go get him.”</p><p>Ray fell back in his chair, muttering in Spanish. “Okay, new rule. If anyone lands up in prison, no more telling me the details.”</p><p>Carlos opened his mouth, either to ask for details or to protest that Ray had asked for the details, but Ray held up his hand. Carrie quietly got him a cup of tea, and if she happened to add some of the expensive brandy that Trevor sent at Christmas, well, no one saw it.</p><p>When Rose returned, it was with a suitably chastened Willie. Turned out Rose was friends with one of the detectives at the precinct, also a Rosa, also fond of leather jackets, although less bubbly. Rosa had fast tracked the process to get Willie out. Julie reflected, with some amusement, that Willie looked like Rose’s lecture on the way home was worse than the entire experience of being arrested. </p><p>“You okay?” she asked, helping him to lay out the dishes on their obnoxiously long table – her parents just kept adding seats whenever they adopted someone else into their circle.</p><p>“Yeah,” he said with a wry grin, “but next time don’t listen to me when I say I’ll catch up to you guys.”</p><p>Two days later, Flynn was given a necklace made from large chain links, held together with a lock that looked far too sophisticated for costume jewelry. She didn’t ask, and he didn’t tell.</p><p>And if he held onto the matching key… well, as Detective Peralta had said, technically they couldn’t trace the monkey back to Willie.</p><p>He didn’t talk to Pierre about monkeys again.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Hope you enjoyed! If anyone wants more of these for any part of the series - pre or during (we have to wait just a little for post) then please let me know, this was really fun and I had a blast.</p><p>Edit: I got Discord! If you to be part of our server, drop a comment and I'll give you an invite link 😊 </p><p>As always, stay safe and stay away from seagulls with one eye, because we don't need pirates invading LA.</p></blockquote></div></div>
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